Valtteri Bottas beats Lewis Hamilton to pole position for 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone
Valtteri Bottas will start ahead of reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton at the front of the grid for Sunday's 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone.
The Finn beat his Mercedes team-mate - who triumphed at the same venue for the seventh time in the British Grand Prix last weekend - by 0.063 seconds in Saturday's exciting qualifying session.
"Feels good, I love qualifying," Bottas said. "I think set up wise, we made big steps from last weekend. Proud to drive this amazing car.
"Mentally when you start on pole you can only aim to win the race. I need a good start from the line and then go from there."
Nico Hulkenberg also stole headlines by securing a brilliant P3 for Racing Point.
The German is deputising for the Silverstone-based team for the second successive race this weekend after Sergio Perez again tested positive for coronavirus on Friday.
He qualified three places ahead of team-mate Lance Stroll, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen lagging behind Hulkenberg in fourth and Daniel Ricciardo sealing fifth spot for Renault.
"Crazy. Last week, big highs to come back then the big low on Sunday," Hulkenberg said.
"This week I felt more prepared. A big surprise to be standing here, but a big smile on my face.
"The race is definitely going to hurt tomorrow but we'll do what we can, I'll try to learn fast."
Pierre Gasly (Scuderia AlphaTauri), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Alex Albon (Red Bull) and Britain's Lando Norris (McLaren) rounded off the top 10, though it was another day to forget for Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who only qualified 12th after being eliminated in Q2.
Read more
70th Anniversary Grand Prix preview | All you need to know
Perez out of 70th anniversary Grand Prix after positive Covid-19 test
Lewis Hamilton parks Mercedes contract talks due to Covid-19 impact
